‘The Hateful Eight:’ Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson Talk Of Their ‘Storied Collaboration’

The Hateful Eight movie, starring Samuel L. Jackson and directed/written by Django Unchained’s Quentin Tarantino with musical score by spaghetti western musician Ennio Morricone, had a limited theater debut on Christmas Day. Although the movie script was leaked online, which instigated the possibility of the film not making it to the big screen, Jackson intervened and talked Tarantino into moving forward with the project, especially after having read the script himself, according to Variety.

“I called him and said, ‘Dude, how are you not going to make this movie?'”

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There looks to be an air of trust between the artistic acting/directing/writing duo as it was mentioned also by Variety that their “storied collaboration” is not much different from that of Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. That said, along with fans putting up a fuss about Tarantino dumping the project, it seems Jackson helped move it along.

The Hateful Eight debuts come January of next year and it looks like Samuel L. Jackson may have been considered first to lead the film directed by Tarantino. The writer/director also cites the “practicality” of his writing style and admits that not every actor is a proper fit for his set of scripted exchanges between actors.

“With me, though, there’s a bit more of a practicality to it: Not every actor can do my dialogue. It’s very specific, and you have to be able to capture the rhythm.”

Jackson is said to be among actors at the top of Tarantino’s favorites like The Incredible Hulk’s Tim Roth, who also appeared in Pulp Fiction, playing a part in attempting to rob a diner while John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson’s characters are on their way to the straight and narrow, according to The Wrap. Another memorable favorite of Tarantino’s is Christoph Waltz, who starred in the Bond film, Spectre.

In The Hateful Eight, and other movies under the cult director’s name, Jackson mentioned that he and the aforementioned actors have “very good linguistic skills” and he makes some comparisons between himself and the other actors.

“We all create characters that are individual and unique to every story he’s written — they’re not the same guy. And we also bring a level of professionalism and confidence to what’s going on that kind of makes the other people want to step their game up a little bit when they’re new to the Tarantino world. We are the constant — we’re the base flavor for that bouillabaisse he makes, we’re the tomato consommé or whatever.”

The interview with Jackson brought about discussions of The Hateful Eight movie script almost getting scrapped, as The Wrap continued the interview. He was asked about the process in developing new material. With the leaked content already in mind, Jackson thought his comrade should move forward with The Hateful Eight movie regardless of it being viewed by the movie pirating community. According to The Independent, and prior to Christmas, there had been around 300,000 downloads of the movie along with the genre-similar Revenant film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It didn’t end there. Other pirated movie downloads included Bridge of Spies, The Danish Girl, Creed, Legend, Joy, and Steve Jobs.

“Somebody had leaked the script and people were reading it online. He was planning on not making it, but he just wanted me to see what he had written. I read it and thought, ‘You’re really not gonna make this?'”

Also, a question of The Hateful Eight script arose in regard to its connectivity to real world racial unrest, particularly with certain pieces of dialogue. The Wrap asked Jackson about his connection to real world issues in relation to his performance and the actor mentioned that since there was nothing else he could go off of, that was the only way he could tie it together for the movie.

Kurt Russell was even brought up, citing his piece of dialogue, “I guess all those things people say about you folks is true.” Jackson makes comparisons to radical Islam and the event that occurred in San Bernardino.

“‘OK, radical Islam is radical Islam, and not every person who’s a Muslim is a terrorist.’ That’s a fine thought until what happened the other day in San Bernardino makes people say, ‘I guess it’s true what they say about those Muslim people.'”

The Hateful Eight movie interview continued with The Wrap talking about the 70-mm environment they were working with and also longevity of the rehearsals. Apparently, Jackson could visually see the expansive space of the scenes regardless of being behind the movie camera. Also, Jackson talked about the number of days spent on script reads; by the time they were done with them, the Haberdashery studio was complete, giving him and his cohorts an environment in which to work.

The Hateful Eight opens next year in theaters come Jan. 1, 2016 and stars other actors such as Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bruce Dern and Walton Goggins.

[Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images Entertainment]